USTOA’s ‘Travel Together’ Aims to Set the Record Straight

With the U.S. Tour Operators Association’s new Travel Together campaign, it is striking a bold blow against the problem that has plagued the industry practically since the rise of modern tour operation: the fact that no matter how hard tour operators market their products, the vast majority of their target market have virtually no idea what they do.

The paradox for tour operators is a sort of Catch 22. It seems that the only people who know what services tour operators actually offer are the people who have been on tours themselves. But how do you get the others, still the vast majority, to step across that line and try a tour for themselves when most of them think a tour is an experience of being herded around in a crowd observing tourist sites through the window of a bus and hurrying through countries so fast you don’t even know which is which?

Although the movie “If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium” was a satire based on a kind of tour that really was overly regimented, the industry has had decades to live it down and people still know the slogan from the movie better than they know what tour operators really offer.

In fact, the model of people traveling together in groups has held up very well over the decades and has proved to be very flexible and capable of adapting to a wide range of purposes and styles of travel. A group of people traveling together with a common interest, combining their economic power so they can have expert guidance, shared transportation costs and bulk rates on hotel rooms, continues to be a good way to travel. Today the model has been modified to meet the needs and desires of modern travelers, who want enriching, immersive experiences at the destinations they visit.

Most tour operators now offer smaller groups than before. They structure into the programs interactive meetings with local residents, often people with particular kinds of knowledge. They provide insider access to places and people that would not be accessible to the individual travelers on their own. They provide rare activities, such as driving a race car, or educational experiences in many different areas of interest.

Any group traveling to any destination has a common interest in that destination. But tour operators increasingly build tours around more specific themes and special interests, such as wine, cuisine, horse racing, art, history, music, ad infinitum. There are tours for almost any special interest that is widely pursued.

In short, tours are not what they used to be. Today it is possible to travel in groups in a huge variety of styles.

Now the USTOA, under the leadership of the imaginative and resourceful Terry Dale, is launching a media campaign of such high impact that it hopes it will break through that resistance and show people that tour operators today offer a very different kind of service than what most people think.

Dale, USTOA’s president, has a great grasp of marketing, He understands the basic principle: when you want to get a message across you hammer it relentlessly. Take no prisoners, leave no avenues of escape, let no one elude your carpet bombing!

The USTOA campaign is a blitzkrieg of high-impact media presentations designed to make the case to travelers that today’s tour packages are the very kind of experiential travel that nearly everyone today is seeking.

The campaign will begin with focuses on Egypt and South Africa, with USTOA working in partnership with Abercrombie & Kent in Egypt and Collette and Swain Destinations in South Africa. The heart of the campaign will be videos starring travel video journalist Kelley Ferro and blog posts from a team of USTOA Ambassadors from AFAR magazine.

PHOTO: Kelley Ferro being recorded by Justin Weiler in Egypt. (photo by David Cogswell)

As the final cherry on top, the campaign includes a chance to win a trip for two to England through Worldwide Traveler and Delta Air Lines. The program will be enriched with local encounters such as a tasting of Somerset ciders, and a visit to filming locations of Harry Potter and "Pride and Prejudice" in Lacock village.

A USTOA press release defines the campaign as “a thoughtfully curated collection of experiential videos and blog posts, [that] will bring travelers ‘live like a local’ moments that delve deeply into immersive cultural experiences in featured destinations across the globe.”

According to Dale, “That is really the heart and soul of why we travel: to share experiences with travel companions and make connections with the native people in the local markets, restaurants, museums, sites, and attractions visited. Travel Together provides insider looks at travelers sharing singular experiences to meet with shopkeepers, learn how to make native foods, share a meal with a family in their home, see how carpets are woven, explore the backroads and even visit local schools, among so many others, because of the access provided by USTOA members.”

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